Karun Chandhok shares ‘very confusing’ call Ferrari made during the Canadian Grand Prix

Follow us on Google Discover

Ferrari arrived in Montreal off the back of a brilliant weekend in Monaco and with Red Bull Racing in their sights in the Constructors’ Championship.

However, Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc both failed to reach Q3 in qualifying and neither car crossed the line to take the chequered flag at the end of the race.

Speaking on Sky Sports F1 at the end of the race, Karun Chandhok was left seriously puzzled by some of the decisions Ferrari made during the race.

With both Ferraris lining up on the sixth row of the grid in some very changeable conditions, both drivers needed to be at the top of their game and needed some luck to go their way.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case and Chandhok couldn’t believe that Ferrari put Leclerc on the hard tyres during the first round of pit stops.

The timing of the stop also made little sense although Leclerc’s race was effectively over at that point anyway.

READ MORE: Everything you need to know about Scuderia Ferrari from team principal to factory

Karun Chandhok confused by Ferrari’s strategy during the Canadian Grand Prix

With nearly every driver starting on the intermediate tyres, Leclerc and Sainz knew that picking their way through the pack quickly was going to be key to scoring decent points in Canada.

Unfortunately, Sainz went backwards from the start and Leclerc quickly discovered he had a power issue that was losing him half a second every lap.

The safety car came out for the first time when Logan Sargeant hit the barriers at turn four catching race leader Lando Norris out as he had to do another lap before changing his tyres and falling behind his rivals.

However, the driver who suffered the most under the safety car was Charles Leclerc.

He was brought in by Ferrari after everyone else had already pitted and was pat stationary for longer than nearly any other driver during the race – except for Sauber’s Zhou Guanyu.

Chandhok has explained what he found so strange about the decision from Ferrari.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t the low point for Frederic Vasseur’s team who ended up coming away from the race pointless.

READ MORE: Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc’s life outside F1 from net worth to girlfriend

Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz have tough time in Canada

Speaking about Leclerc’s pit stop, Chandhok said: “I mean that pit [stop] made no sense to me. There was an enormous rain cloud about to dump, every other team were counting down to the rain and they put slicks on it.

“The hard tyres as well, not even the soft! So, it was very confusing.

“Listen, on the whole, a pointless weekend both statistically and metaphorically.”

Although Leclerc managed to fix his power issue while he was sitting stationary, the hard tyres were impossible to use in very wet conditions.

He was lapped and eventually pitted again to put on intermediate tyres before Ferrari simply retired his car.

That left it up to Carlos Sainz to try and deliver some points for Ferrari, however, that didn’t go to plan either.

READ MORE: Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz’s life outside F1 from full name, girlfriend and height

Sainz was challenging for the final few points before he made a mistake heading into turn six where Sergio Perez’s race effectively ended.

He spun his Ferrari and made a mistake that Jacques Villeneuve suggested no driver should ever make in F1.

Sainz collected Alex Albon in the process, bringing out the safety car again and ending Ferrari’s involvement in the Grand Prix.

Vasseur will hope that the Canadian Grand Prix is the nadir of Ferrari’s season before heading to Spain for the next race.